We will play our first-choice XI against Bangladesh: MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni

India One-Day International (ODI) skipper MS Dhoni has stated, ahead of their three-match ODI series against Bangladesh starting on Thursday, that they will not be taking the hosts lightly. He added that they intend to play their first-choice XI throughout the series as Bangladesh have made rapid improvements in the shorter formats recently and whitewashed Pakistan 3-0 last month.

“We will feature the best XI. Bangladesh are a very good ODI team; they have been playing ODI cricket for a long time now,” Dhoni said. “Also, with the advent of T20 cricket, it gives the guys a bit more exposure and the knowledge of when to take calculated risk and when to back off. A Test match is played over a period of five days and you need to be more consistent. With experience they will improve in that format as well.”

“The domestic structure is crucial to a national team’s strength and the new players coming up in Bangladesh have done well with the opportunities they have been given,” he added.

The series will be India’s first ODI assignment since the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where they reached the semi-finals before losing to eventual world champions Australia. While India’s performance was fairly commendable considering the fact that conditions were not really in their favour, Dhoni feels that the No.6 and 7 spots are areas where they need to strengthen in order to challenge for the 2017 Champions Trophy and 2019 World Cup.

“The top four-five batsmen in our current lineup, if they are fit and in decent form over the years, they might go into the next World Cup and the Champions Trophy,” Dhoni said. “Where we need to improve is with our lower middle-order, particularly No. 6 and 7.

“In the last year and a half our bottom order hasn’t had too many opportunities to bat, especially in the subcontinent, where our top-order has done a remarkable job. It gets difficult for these guys to be more consistent with the bat because an opportunity where they have to score 50-60 runs comes once in 15-20 games.

“All in all, we need a scenario where players are competing for those 6 and 7 slots because if you are playing with four bowlers, 90 per cent of the time your No. 7 has to bowl 10 overs for you.”

One player who Dhoni feels has the ability to occupy the No.7 slot in the long-term is Ravichandran Ashwin, who is undisputedly India’s premier spinner and can make some useful contributions with the bat in hand.

“Ashwin has shown improvement. You play in all different conditions in the world and you try to do different things. It is important to learn something new with every game and I feel Ashwin has done that well.

“He is a thinking cricketer; he thinks about his game a lot, and that is why he has shown a lot of improvement. It is good to have somebody like him because he can bat as well and in modern cricket runs from your lower order are very important.”